To whom it may concern,
I visited your website to pay my electric bill today and noticed that you have instituted a “convenience fee” for online payments. I have been paying my bill online for a long time now and today is the first time I have seen this fee. I am curious as to why your business model now includes charging customers for something that is easier for both them and you, but also cuts down on waste? Have you had to hire additional employees to handle the online bill processing? Have you had to hire additional IT professionals or pay more in database or web hosting? I’m just wondering what the extra $5 is being used for.
The customer service rep I spoke to on the phone when I called to ask about this new fee made it painfully clear that Murfreesboro Electric Department has no intention of embracing any kind of technology (she was not aware of how email addresses worked, telling me I should send my email to “murfreesboroelectric.com, there was no ‘anyone @’ in this email address”), despite almost every other business in the country encouraging its customers to move to paperless billing and online bill payment not only to help cut down on paper waste but to make things simpler for everyone involved as well.
I realize that Murfreesboro Electric Department is a monopoly and I am going to have to either pay your convenience fee or suck it up and buy more checks and stamps, but I wanted to voice my displeasure as a customer in case you put any stock in your customers’ opinions. It’s sad that when Murfreesboro is making such great strides in moving toward being a more progressive town, its largest utility company is working to hinder its progress.
I look forward to your response, as I’ll be sharing it on my blog, Twitter and Facebook with other Murfreesboro residents.
Best,
Megan Morris
——
UPDATE: See below for the email I received back. You’ll notice it doesn’t answer my question as to what the $5 is going toward. Also, apparently I can use a check, but not a credit card, and that doesn’t require a convenience fee. (Who the F uses checks still??) I guess my answer is that the $5 charge is to cover the cost of processing credit card payments to their processor. Which is still bullshit. EVERY merchant that accepts credit or debit cards pays a processing fee. Would you pay an additional fee at the grocery store or a clothing store to be able to use your credit or debit card? Why is it OK for the electric department to charge one, then?
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Comments ( 4 )
I volunteer to run by your house once a month, pick up the check that you have written and put in an unstamped envelope, carry it over to MED and stick it in the overnight deposit slot on your behalf. Because I do the same thing to Consolidated Utility District every damn month since they started charging for the convenience of getting money sent directly from my account (and others’) to theirs. Especially since both places are on my way to or from work.
I refuse to let anybody, especially a utility (or a newspaper, are you listening Gannett?), have access to my bank account.
Now I am going to go home and pet the cat and laugh most of the evening. I hope you do the same, except in greater quantity and quality!
grandefille added these pithy words on
Nov 13 09 at
5:59 pm
This makes me think of my student loan company *cough*WELLSFARGO*cough*, whose little pay envelopes all say, cheerfully, “SAVE A STAMP! PAY BY PHONE!” But paying by phone incurs an $8 processing fee. So yes. By all means. Save a stamp and pay $8 to pay by phone. Yeesh, peoples. Yeesh.
Lindsey added these pithy words on
Nov 13 09 at
7:59 pm
Just catching up on my RSS reading….but, do you have online banking? I use my Suntrust online banking and they send out a paper check to companies who won’t accept it directly from them. This is how I get my Landlord a “check” every month too…and there are no fees. Just an idea!
Colleen Egan added these pithy words on
Dec 01 09 at
4:24 pm
Hey Colleen,
I do use online bill pay to pay my credit card bill, and I probably need to use it more often for other bills as well. I did end up paying the electric dept. with an electronic check, though. No way in HELL was I paying those jokers an additional $5.
Megan added these pithy words on
Dec 01 09 at
4:35 pm
